Despite the fact that Hawkeye was absent from the movie, Jeremy Renner’s commitments to the Marvel blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War created a scheduling conflict with Paramount Pictures’ Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which ultimately prevented his character Brandt from appearing in the spy sequel.
However, director Christopher McQuarrie has revealed to Empire (via Collider) that he did offer Renner the opportunity to return for a brief cameo, which would have seen Brandt sacrificing himself during the film’s opening sequence.
“I had this whole idea that the movie would start with the death of a team member,” said McQuarrie. “And of course the first team member that’s always the first guy we talk about killing is Luther. Luther died in the first movie, and he quite famously said to Tom Cruise, ‘Hey man, how come the brother’s always gotta die?’ And Tom said, ‘You’re right.’ He was like, ‘Why do I gotta be the bad guy?’ And they made Luther nefarious and then suddenly a good guy, and six movies later it was the smartest question anybody’s ever asked Tom Cruise.”
“So I said to Jeremy, look we can’t kill Ving, it’s never going to work,” he continued. “No matter how many movies into it, it’s always going to be the same thing. You killed the black guy. And we didn’t think the movie could recover if you killed Benji. So I said to Renner, ‘Hey listen, I have this idea for an opening sequence where you sacrifice yourself to save the team, and that the mission-gone-wrong not only involves losing the plutonium, but involves the death of a team member.’ And Jeremy was like, ‘Thanks, but no thanks’. He was smart not to take the short paycheck for three days of work and getting blown up.”
SEE ALSO: Mission: Impossible – Fallout has no deleted scenes says director Christopher McQuarrie
The best intentions often come back to haunt you. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team (Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) along with some familiar allies (Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan) in a race against time after a mission gone wrong. Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, and Vanessa Kirby also join the dynamic cast with filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie returning to the helm.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout sees Tom Cruise joined by returning stars Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin, Sean Harris and Michelle Monaghan, along with new additions Henry Cavill (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), Sian Brooke (Sherlock), Angela Bassett (American Horror Story) and Vanessa Kirby (The Crown).
